This invention relates generally to solar powered electric power generator systems and more particularly to such systems which use solar heated air as the motive source to power such system.
Solar powered electric power generator systems have been proposed which use solar heated air to drive the electric power generator of the system. One of the difficulties inherent in such systems is that the electric power output capability varies as the amount of sunlight varies. This variance typically does not match the electric power demand variances on such systems. As a result, various storage subsystems were necessary to store excess electrical power that can be generated during periods of sunlight where the electrical generating capacity of the system exceeded the electrical demand load on the system so that the stored electrical energy could be used during periods where the electrical generating capacity of the system was less than the electrical demand load on the system. Because electrical energy is difficult to store economically, economically feasible storage subsystems for this purpose have not been developed. This has resulted in such generator systems not being able to reliably supply the total electrical power demand without additional backup systems to supply electrical power when the solar powered system was unable to meet the demand load. The overall costs of such solar powered generator systems in combination with the backup systems have been economically unfeasible to use.
Another problem with such prior art systems is that they have generally been unable to generate a sufficient amount of solar heated air to drive the electric power generator. This was due partly to the inability of such systems to collect a sufficient amount of sunlight when it was available to heat the air and also partly due to the inability to sufficiently use the air that was solar heated to drive the electrical power generator while at the same time keeping the cost of such systems economically feasible.